Construction and Transformation of a Sacred Urban Complex of Hardwar-Rishikesh, North India

Hardwar: Myths, texts and rituals

Hardwar is located on western bank of the Ganges on the southern fringe of the Shivalik mountains, the foothills of the Himalayas. Hardwar’s historiography consists of both atemporal/mythical as well as temporal/historical sources. Mythologically, Hardwar is a gateway between heaven and earth; the Ganges descended here to grant moksha (salvation) to King Sagar’s sixty thousand sons, who had been burned to ash by an ascetic’s curse. Thus, Hardwar became a tirtha (pilgrimage) and a sacred site (Bhardwaj 1973; Bhardwaj and Lochtefeld 2004) for the Hindu rituals like snana (bathing) or asthivisarjan (consigning the ashes of the dead to the Ganges). Another powerful myth has also made Hardwar one of the four sacred spots for Kumbh Mela, the world’s largest religious gathering, which occurs every 12 years. For many centuries, Kumbh Mela, besides being a religious festival, has also turned out to be a great spectacle in which millions of Hindus cutting across sects, sampradayas and regions, actively participate (Maclean 1996).

Kalidas, the great Sanskrit poet, in his Meghaduta (fifth century CE) mentions the descent of the Ganges and Kankhal (holy site of Hardwar). Chinese traveller Hsuan Tsang, (seventh century CE), calls Hardwar Mo-yu-lo (Mayapuri) and refers to it as Gangadvara (the gate of the Ganga river). Hsuan Tsang observed that hundreds and thousands of people assembled here for religious bathing and benevolent kings offered free food medicines to pilgrims and made charity to widows, orphans and destitute (Lochtefeld 2010, 51). Mahatmyas identify five sacred bathing sites in the Ganges: Gangadvara, Kushavarta, Bivaka, Nila Parvata, and Kankhal where holy bathing will bestow religious merit and wash away sin. Mahatmya texts, composed and produced in early and late medieval India in Sanskrit/vernacular languages, had a specific objective to promote the ‘greatness’ (mahatmya) of the sacred spaces/cities by narrating tales of origin of those particular sites. Mahatmyas also highlight the cultural, religious and regional history, local cults and religious institutions. Hardwar is no exception; Hardwara Mahatmya as well as several puranas, composed during this period, glorify the greatness of this sacred city.

The Autobiography of Timur, Mulfuzat-i-Timuri (fourteenth century CE), while boasting Emperor Timur’s victory at Hardwar, also provides a vivid account of Hardwar as a sacred site for Hindu pilgrimage, ritual bathing, immersion of ashes after death, where Brahmins and priests received large charity. The Mughul period (1526 – 1761), excepting Aurangzeb’s reign, recorded an increased flow of trade, traffic and pilgrims to Hardwar. Akbar’s lieutenant and ally Raja Mansingh laid the foundations of present-day Hardwar and revived its ancient glory; Mansingh constructed a temple at Har-Ki-Pauri, which is the most revered sacred site today. The seventeenth century English traveler Thomas Coryat recorded his visit to Hardwar’s spring bathing festival where he noted a large gathering of pilgrims. Khulasat-ut-Tawaraikh, a chronicle written by Sujan Rai Khattri in Persian in the late seventeenth century, mentions Baishakh festival and Kumbh Mela.

The chronicles of Hsuan Tsang, Timur, and Sujan Rai confirmed that the rituals prescribed in Puranas and Mahatmyas like Hardwar Mahatmya were being observed in Hardwar. Those rituals, such as bathing (snana), death rites (shraddha, tarpana, astivisarjana) and rites like shaving and immersing ashes of the dead (astivisarjan) and gift giving (dana) are performed today as well. A large number of Hindus flock to the city during the most auspicious Kumbh Mela (occurs every 12 years), Ardh Kumbh Mela (occurs every 6 years), Magh Mela and many other annual religious festivals to take a holy dip in the Ganges and perform other rituals to gain religious merit and fulfil their religious obligations. The rituals prescribed in the Mahatmyas, further legitimized in historical sources, have remained remarkably stable (Lochtefeld 2010, 52). However, ancient and medieval Hardwar has undergone phenomenal changes during the colonial and postcolonial period. Colonial and postcolonial state, priests and ascetics, pilgrims and tourists, politicians and entrepreneurs have been the key stakeholders in this transformation.

Construction of modern Hardwar: Pilgrim market, ascetics and colonialism

With the decline of the Mughals, Hardwar emerged as an important economic hub as a key entry point for goods from northern and western India and also as a primary distribution center for east and north (Bayly 1983, 156). By the mid-eighteenth century, the pilgrimage city had turned into a lucrative marketplace, particularly during the spring bathing festival. The festival stimulated the market, generating demand for gold, musk, dyes, dry fruits, shawls, ivory and brass goods and rock salt. In 1800s, the Hardwar fair became a market for livestock like horses, camels, cattle, elephants, dogs, monkeys etc. and turned into the largest horse fair in India; the East India company used to send their representatives for trading. Hundis, money lending bills of exchanges, were popular means of trade. A flourishing trade also propelled an increase of traffic; while more people visited Hardwar for pilgrimage, a significant number was attracted to the market.

A thriving market stimulated the marketing of the religious sites by highlighting their prominence, thus attracting more pilgrims to Hardwar. Trade flow from north and west opened avenues for Brahmins to look for patronage. Pandas, the local brahmins, acted as ritual specialists and pilgrim guides. Soon each panda family acquired exclusive hereditary rights over pilgrims from a particular geographical region/district. They devised an innovative method to protect this entitlement by creating and preserving meticulous pilgrim records, popularly called bahis (pilgrims’ register) which contained genealogy of pilgrim’s family (Goswamy 1966). Pilgrims, particularly coming from western and northern India, cultivated a close bonding with the Pandas. Whenever they came on pilgrimage, the Pandas provided them lodging, boarding and other logistics and became their tour guides. This relationship continued through successive generations till today; when pilgrims come to Hardwar to perform rituals, they connect to the present successor of their family Panda; the family members see their ancestor’s names and signatures as recorded in Panda’s bahis, feel gratified and donate liberally. Recently, the Pandas have started digitizing these age-old genealogy records (Kapoor 2016).

While Pandas benefited from the pilgrimage market by receiving patronage from pilgrims, in lieu of ritualistic service and guidance, another group of religious actors became powerful stake holder in Hardwar’s market economy. They were ascetics/sadhus/gosais/mahants, who received alms and donations from the pilgrims and visitors to the shrines. Unlike individual enterprises of the Pandas, these ascetics acted as organized corporations to control Hardwar’s booming pilgrimage market economy since the seventeenth century by taking over Hardwar’s key sites like Bvilekeshvar, Maya Devi, Bhairav Akhara and Daksheshvara. Akharas, organised ascetic bands, emerged as a potent economic, political and military force in Hardwar in the eighteenth century. An early nineteenth century report mentioned that that a mahant (abbot) spent 100,000 rupees as temple endowment, community dining and dakshina/charity to brahmins. A competition for resources and status among the abbots led to conflict, sometimes bloody, which occurred on the right to collect alms from pilgrims/visitors to shrines. Power and earning capacity were intertwined; Gosains, besides being an economically dominant group in Hardwar, had also virtually acted as rulers in their own right (Bayly 1983, 184; Cohn 1974). Thus, Hindu militant ascetics had substantial control over the city – from religion and economy to social and political life.

After taking control of the region in 1801, the British reduced bloody conflict and volatility, brought relative peace which boosted even greater traffic. This gave further prosperity to ascetics and other stake holders and property owners of Hardwar. Colonial government was keen to control the territory and trade without interfering with popular Hindu festivals and rituals like the Kumbh Mela. While conservative colonialists found the Mela a ‘nuisance’, pragmatic colonial administrators found it positive and thought it would be wise to promote the Mela to appease Hindu sentiment. Hence, they took the responsibility of managing Kumbh Mela; crowd control, public order and public health at the fair became the major concern. The deployment of British military units at the fair and visit of Company officials to the market led to streamlining and orderly conduct of festivals. After a bathing tragedy occurred in 1820 which killed 485 pilgrims, the colonial government constructed a new ghat at Har Ki Pauri, which triggered development of the city.

Development of the Hardwar city induced local moneyed interests to build new and bigger temples; trade flourished and Hardwar prospered. Hardwar, in the early 1800s, saw construction boom. The British government constructed projects like a new ghat at Brahmakund and a supply channel for the upper Ganges channel. The railroad arrived in 1886. Though it had an adverse impact on Hardwar’s fair and on traditional business trade networks, it stimulated Hardwar’s growth and dramatically increased pilgrim traffic. There was the occasional tussle between local business interest and the British government, too. In 1892, being fearful of a cholera outbreak, the government dispersed an important bathing festival in Hardwar, which saw protests by angry Pandas (Prior 1993). Another conflict occurred in 1916 over Bhim Goda weir; while the British found the weir essential for irrigation, the locals perceived that damming the Ganges was sacrilegious.

During colonial rule, pilgrim flow to Hardwar substantially increased, trade and pilgrimage market flourished, wealthy and powerful groups prospered, militant ascetic sects got prominence and the city’s landscape got transformed. Hindu business elites also contributed the city-building enterprise by opening Dharamshalas (guest houses) and charitable trusts. Raja Baldev Das Birla, an emerging capitalist and also a Hindu scholar, constructed a Clock Tower at Har Ki Pauri in 1938. The Clock tower, a four-sided structure with a clock on each side, demonstrating a fine architecture, has adorned the famous sacred ghat where thousands of pilgrims assemble every evening to participate in Ganga aarti (fire ritual).

Evolution of spiritual rishikesh

Rishikesh, a spiritual city, situated 24 kms upstream from Hardwar, has a scenic landscape – the Ganges in the middle surrounded by mountains on all sides. The mythological origins of Rishikesh/Hrishikesh go back to Rabhiya Rishi, who is believed to have made hard penance here. The section of the Skanda Purana called the Kedarkhanda deals with Rishikesh and Tapovan; as the text mentions, Rama and his brother Lakshmana, by the advice of sage Vasisth, came to do penance and to atone for slaying Ravana, who was a Brahmin. Both brothers lived in the wilderness apart from one another, Rama at Rishikesh and Lakshmana at Tapovan, until they had obtained remission of their sin (Walton 1929, 167). The presence of Bharata Pushkar temple, Shatrughan temple, and Lakshman temple makes a claim for the city’s authentic connection with Lord Rama. Besides, the rivers, forests, mountain, caves, deities and sages mentioned in Mahatmyas and Puranas made Rishikesh sacred to Hindus.

Interestingly, neither myths nor texts, while bestowing sacrality on Rishikesh, did mention performance of rituals at sacred sites for religious merit and salvation, unlike the ones in the case of Hardwar. Instead, they referred to meditation, penance and its special location as a physical gateway to the sacred spaces in the High Himalayas, symbolising spiritual transcendence to reach God. Thus, Hardwar’s traditional and ritualistic Hinduism took a ‘subjective turn’ and turned towards new forms of spirituality in Rishikesh in which personal experience became more important than conformity to oblations and obligations. Spiritual Rishikesh signified a turning away from externality and put the premium on consciousness, mind, inner feelings, emotions and bodily experiences. Knowing the self has been the core philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, which carries Hindu spiritual tradition; Hindu sages have been preaching this mantra of direct transcendental spiritualism for millennia. Rishikesh, being a quiet contemplative place adjacent to ritualistic Hardwar, ideally represented the idea and practice of spiritualism, attracting pilgrims and mystics who privileged spiritual experience.

Unlike Hardwar, Rishikesh was not developed until it came under British rule. The British defeated the Gurkhas and brought Dehra Dun, of which Rishikesh was a part, under their control in 1815. Besides building roads and canals, colonial administrators established hill stations in nearby Landaour and Mussooree. The Hardwar-Dehra Railway was opened in 1900 which increased traffic flow to the region. By 1915, colonial government constructed eight miles of road between Rishikesh Road Railway Station and Rishikesh Town and reinforced concrete bridge over the river Suswa, spending 150,000 rupees. The Rishikesh Improvement Scheme has paved and drained the streets of the town and laid out the roads for expansion, which stimulated the increase of traffic flow to Rishikesh remarkably (Walton 1929). In the early 1920s, Lakshman Jhoola, a suspension bridge was built on the Ganges for the movement of traffic; in popular belief, in the era of Ramayana, Lakshman came to Rishikesh and crossed over the Ganges on the same site; Lakshman Jhoola has become an icon in Rishikesh.

The development of the urban infrastructure in Rishikesh increased the flow of pilgrims to the city and it emerged as a gateway to the Himalayan pilgrimage. Some pilgrims, who came to Hardwar to perform rituals, extended their journey to perform the Himalayan Char Dham (Four Abodes) yatra (journey): Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath; Rishikesh became the starting point of this journey. This gave impetus to enterprising ascetics and gurus, including those who already had ashrams (hermitages) in Hardwar, to make new ashrams in Rishikesh with a changed focus as they realized that Rishikesh offered an ideal site to explore the spiritual form of religion. Thus, they chose an ideal location called Muni ki Reti (Sands of the Sages) for the ashram complex; mythologically, this area was believed to be the site of meditation of ancient Sages. In the late colonial period, Kailash Ashram, Swarg Ashram, Sivananda Ashram came up in this locality; subsequently, Muni Ki Reti became a spiritual hub with rows of Ashrams on the bank of the Ganges, attracting Indian and foreign pilgrims to live in these spiritual retreats and learn and practice Yoga and meditation.

State-ascetic partnership in Hardwar’s transformation

The postcolonial Indian state developed Hardwar as a modern planned pilgrimage city and built infrastructure (Urban Development Department Government of Uttarakhand 2007). The city’s urban area expanded by incorporating the adjoining towns of Kankhal and Jwalapur with Hardwar city’s exclusively Hindu space in between; Hardwar and Kankhal remained almost exclusively Hindu. The state renovated and beautified bathing ghats, ritual sites and Hindu sacred spaces. Hardwar city was transformed with the renovation of old temples and monasteries and the construction of new temples, rest houses, roads, bridges and civic and Hindu institutions.

Kumbh Mela received top priority and the state followed colonial practices like creating infrastructure and logistics for the smooth management of Kumbh Mela, maintaining law and order and preventing the occurrence of epidemics. For example, the state government of Uttarakhand budgeted 3626 crores of rupees for the 2021 Maha Kumbh Mela in Hardwar, to build city infrastructure like roads, flyovers, bridges, buildings, toilet complexes for the convenience of a million pilgrims. City infrastructure was also augmented periodically during the Ardh Kumbh Mela, Magh Mela and other Hindu festivals. The construction of Ganga Path Marine Drive, the building and beautification of bathing ghats, refurbishment of the walking tracks, upgradation of public transport and communication, etc. made Hardwar a modern city. In 2018, the Indian federal government identified Hardwar as one of the ‘smart cities’ and sanctioned 1500 crores of rupees for city augmentation. Thus, the state has been continuously investing to make the sacred city modern.

As Hindu monastic orders have been key stakeholders of the Kumbh and also of the city, the state has continued its partnership with ascetics in conducting Kumbh and other religious festivals. The state is well aware of the social, religious and political clout of the Thirteen Akharas (Order of Hindu Ascetics) in Hardwar and beyond. Akharas became proactive in the postcolonial period; they created Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad (ABAP) – an umbrella body in 1954 to enhance their clout further. The akharas organised pilgrimages to the 51 pan-Indian Shakti Peethas (shrines dedicated to Goddesses/Shakti) and took a leading role in the Kumbh Mela, Ardh Kumbh Mela and Magh Mela. They also performed a wide variety of rituals every day in Hardwar which draw people to the ghats and the temples, besides managing dharamshalas (guest houses), gaushalas (cow shelters), schools, health centres and other institutions.

Recognizing their clout, the state has allowed them to keep their dominance over the pilgrimage market as well as to carry on their commercial agenda. As a consequence, Akharas have acquired large assets like land, real-estate, revenue from residential and commercial areas, banquet halls, educational institutes and parking spaces in prime locations in Hardwar and across the country. They receive large donations from the rich and the poor, but do not declare their assets and revenues. Some akharas abuse the land grant by selling it to real estate developers; for instance, Nirmal Akhara has sold the land allotted for the residence of the ashram inmates to a builder for the construction of 150 apartments at Kankhal (The Times of India 2018). Despite such irregularities, the state continues to patronise them. When the ascetics demanded land for a burial site (sanyasis are buried, not cremated), the state government has agreed to provide 4.38 hectare of land near the Ganga in Hardwar for 'bhu-samadhi' (burial) though they already have large land in their possession.

In order to appease the ascetics and Gurus, the state has granted them prime land at nominal cost to build and expand their ashrams and institutions. Today, there are more than 300 ashrams and dharamshalas (guest houses) in Hardwar which can accommodate more than 20000 pilgrims during Kumbh, Ardh Kumbha and other auspicious occasions in Hardwar. Prominent among them are Prem Nagar Ashram, Umiya Dham, Pawan Dham and Patanjali Yog Peeth. Hardwar ashrams have sprawling complexes consisting of temples, satsang bhawans, dispensaries, libraries, schools, colleges, gardens; some even have research centers, herbal parks and universities. Ashrams have modern air-conditioned rooms for thousands of pilgrims. Major temples like Mansa Devi Temple, having a lucrative income, has remained under the control of Niranjani Akhara. Another prosperous temple, Chandi Devi Temple, is run by two families – the Giris and the Puris. Temple trusts only have nominal power, allowing powerful individual mahants/ascetics and their families to keep control on revenue, which ignites ugly competition and even violent conflict, to have access to resources and domination. Many charismatic gurus have set up well-known ashrams like the Gayatri Parivar’s sprawling Shantikunj (Heifetz 2018).

As Hardwar established itself as a prominent sacred city of Hindus during the colonial era, Hindu social reformers set up social and educational institutions in the city. In 1902, a prominent Arya Samaj leader, Swami Shraddhanand, founded Gurukul Kangri University with the objective of promoting ancient Vedic traditions and reviving the gurukul system of education. This university later received state recognition and expanded its scope to include a modern scientific education. Besides prioritizing teaching and research on the Vedas and Sanskrit, Ayurveda, and Indian philosophy, it imparts education on modern sciences and journalism as well. The university has a sprawling campus on the banks of the Ganges.

Transformation of postcolonial Rishikesh into a spiritual enterprise

Along with Hardwar, the state continued to develop infrastructure in Rishikesh as flows of pilgrims to the city started increasing steadily. However, urbanization picked up speed in the 1960s after the Beatles came to Rishikesh to meet their guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the Transcendental Meditation Movement (Froystad 2011). Soon Rishikesh became a destination for international visitors and tourists and the city gradually turned into a cosmopolitan center of monastic life. Maharshi’s Swarg Ashram with Chaurasi Kutia (84 meditation chambers) became globally famous as the Beatles Ashram.

Spiritual entrepreneurs and new age gurus made a beeline to Rishikesh to build ashrams. Swami Dayananda started his ashram in the 1960s to teach Vedic chanting and Yoga. Swami Yogeshwaranand Paramahansa founded Yoga Niketan in 1964 to spread spiritual awakening focusing on the eightfold path of Patanjali yoga sutra; the ashram inmates adhered to the strict schedule of daily yoga, meditation and lectures. Swami Rama launched Sadhna Mandir and Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama Ashram in 1966. Acharya Rajneesh’s Osho Gangadham Ashram started mediation camps. A guru with his Canadian spouse started Anand Prakash Ashram to teach yoga. Swami Sivananda, the founder of the Divine Life Society (DLS), who already had received transnational recognition (Strauss 2002), opened an ashram in Rishikesh. His ashram emerged as a top yoga center offering free yoga and meditation classes with a focus on five aspects of yoga: postures, breathing, relaxation, meditation, and diet. Parmarth Niketan Ashram became a sprawling complex and offered daily yoga classes, Satsang and lectures, besides helping the detox of body and soul.

Spiritualism, meditation and yoga gave a new identity to Rishikesh and the city got the tag of ‘Yoga Capital of the World’. New age gurus marketed and patented their brands of yoga, commercialized and commodified Rishikesh’s spiritual milieu. Ashrams turned out to be spiritual enterprises and commercial ventures, from selling yoga and ayurveda products to modern accommodation and customized diet. Ashrams were institutionalized and started earning high revenues from offering courses and classes on yoga, meditation and Vedic heritage and yoga. Rishikesh produced yoga teachers for the world. Ashrams became resorts and retreats with modern luxury rooms and amenities.

If Hardwar has been identified as a sacred city for performing Hindu rituals, having thousands of maths/monasteries, priests, mahants/abbots, the sacred Rishikesh became a spiritual city for meditation and yoga with New Age gurus and Ashrams. A large number of spiritual seekers, both local and global, traveled to Rishikesh and spent months (Khandelwal 2007). While Hardwar attracted mainly Hindi speaking Hindu pilgrims belonging to diverse socio-economic classes, Rishikesh, in contrast, catered to pilgrims as well as ‘spiritual tourists’, both foreigners and rich and middle-class English-speaking Indians (Khandelwal 2012). Thus, a quiet Rishikesh of colonial era was transformed into a sacred hub of spiritualism and global yoga movement (Norman 2018, 162).

Spiritualism, state and market in neoliberal Rishikesh

Neoliberal India dramatically increased the flow of both global pilgrims and tourists to Rishikesh. The Indian middle class grew substantially, taking a religious turn and demonstrating great propensity for travel and exploration (Waghorne 2019). Rishikesh became an ideal destination for the global and Indian travelers where they can combine pilgrimage and tourism. The state found immense potential in the tourism industry and developed modern infrastructure, communications and institutions focusing on ‘spiritual tourism’, thus combining spiritualism with leisure. The state showcased Rishikesh as a gateway to the Himalayas, a starting point for the Char Dham yatra to four Himalayan holy sites.

On the foundation of ancient myths and medieval mahatmyas, the state became the author and promoter of ‘modern mahatmya’ of ‘Dev Bhoomi’ (the state of Uttarakhand) and Char Dham (Pinkney 2014). The neoliberal state made a partnership with private stakeholders to disseminating Modern Mahatmya of Uttarakhand and Hardwar-Rishikesh. Thus, state officials and business owners innovatively distinguished between ‘pilgrimage’, primarily targeting domestic and diasporic Indians, and ‘spiritual tours’, highlighting yoga and meditation, attracting foreigners and elite Indians (Khandelwal 2012). Partnering with private travel agencies, the state repackaged the sacred geography of Hardwar and Rishikesh (Auckland 2018); the tourist guides, combining commercial and religious interests, started retailing religion during guided tours (Auckland 2016). The state government also started the International Yoga Festival in 1999 in collaboration with Parmarth Niketan Ashram; the ashram became the host of the event. This has become an annual event subsequently in which scores of participants come from foreign countries.

While orienting economy towards tourism, the state not only propagated and popularized ‘spiritual tourism’, it strategically expanded the idea of pilgrimage to include ‘adventure tourism’ (bungee jumping, hiking, trekking, river rafting) and also village tourism. To cater to global tourists, cafes, bakeries, restaurants sprang up across the city. Thus, Rishikesh was glamorized and commodified combining spiritualism and leisure as the core identity of the city. Significantly, Rishikesh made a marked departure; unlike short visits of pilgrims to Hardwar, the tourists stayed longer even for months in Rishikesh, for yoga courses, satsangs, camps and renewal of the self through spirituality and leisure. This opened up more avenues for the hospitality industry in the city.

Rishikesh, attracting national/international ‘pilgrim tourists’ became a cosmopolitan city. Ashrams became retreats for yoga, meditation, ayurveda and naturopathy. New Age gurus built big ashram complexes with modern facilities to attract a large number of rich Indian and global clients. Some enterprising gurus like Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Yogpeeth, which had a modest beginning as a yoga center, grew exponentially diversifying into ayurveda and consumer products. It started mass production of thousands of consumer goods and ayurvedic medicines and marketed them through Patanjali outlets across India. Patanjali became a popular brand name in India; the middle-class consumers demonstrated a craze for Patanjali products believing that they were pure, authentic, natural, healthy and an indigenous alternative to the Western products. Baba Ramdev soon achieved a phenomenal corporate success and became a business tycoon with a multi-billion empire. The location of Ramdev’s spiritual-business empire in sacred Hardwar-Rishikesh gave mutual publicity to each other. Ramdev’s economic clout was further enhanced by his collaboration with the right-wing government (Kanungo 2019).

The neoliberal state also allowed corporate investors to explore the growing spiritual and wellness market of Rishikesh. They opened modern retreats which provided wholesome package: Vedic weddings, ayurveda, naturopathy, and even Covid rehabs. These retreats, amidst a rustic natural ambience on the bank of the Ganges, created walkways, gardens, fountains, amusement parks against the backdrop of Himalayan peaks. Naturoville is one such luxurious retreat, which provides packages of yoga, meditation, naturopathy, ayurveda and panchkarma treatment.

The media is an indispensable partner of the neoliberal project. Festivals like Kumbh Mela and Kanwar yatras remained in the media glare. The media also gave generous primetime coverage to Hindu sadhus, ashrams, or religious and spiritual enterprises on television, in newspapers and YouTube videos. For instance, national and global yatras (processions) during the 1986 centenary celebrations of Swami Sivananda, the founder of the Divine Life Society, received massive media coverage. There was advertisement of the celebration in all leading newspapers. Billboards flashed that ‘there is no path without a guru’; all hotels in Hardwar-Rishikesh displayed Sivananda’s quotes. Swami Chidananda, another globally acclaimed Hindu sanyasi, who was also associated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), received generous media coverage during Hardwar’s Kumbh Mela. Neoliberal India saw a proliferation of TV channels with religious content. Gurus like Ramdev had their own TV channels. These channels, while telecasting yoga, meditation and religious discourses, showcased sacred cities of India, and especially Hardwar and Rishikesh.